C 0 N C 0 R D I A,S SDAY _____ PORT VOL. 22 DECEMBER 4, x997 Networks of volunteers now stretch between universities Students help each other ple who have fallen on hard times. some of the student volunteers help­ BY MICHAEL D OBIE "It's as different as it could be from ing out were in just as much in need ome students will be sitting in the good days," he said, in his office of assistance as the non-students Sclassrooms writing exams, while at 2090 Mackay St. they were helping. Thus was born their stomachs rumble with hunger. Terho said that when he was a the year-round food voucher pro­ Campus Ministry is compiling a student in the 1960s, bursaries and gram that is funded entirely by list of students who would benefit scholarships were more plentiful. keeping aside some of the money from a Christmas food basket. This Student loans were often forgiven raised during the Spirit of Christmas is one of several emergency food pro­ after graduation, and there seemed Drive. grams that the Campus Ministry to be more part-time jobs for stu­ "It's a stop-gap to help students directs as a unit of Advocacy and dents. Not all students live the with emergencies like waiting for Support Services. There is also a privileged existence commonly student loans and bursaries," Terho year-round food voucher program, a ascribed to them, he said. "It's said. "Or sometimes a roommate will student food bank that is just getting important to recognize times are dif­ suddenly leave, or there'll be a death underway, and Mother Hubbard's ferent." in the family, and a student will have Cupboard, the Monday night soup Terho described an escalating a cash-flow crisis." Actors Nick Titcombe, Joe Cobden and Susan Doyon get tips kitchen run by the Peer Helpers. series of responses to changed cir­ Students in need will receive a from Toronto director Ken Gass at a rehearsal for Claudius, "This is something the community cumstances that Campus Ministry voucher that can be redeemed for Gass's "tale of politics, passion and paranoia," scheduled to does to help its own members," said has spearheaded over the last 15 groceries at Provigo. At the same open tomorrow night in the downtown D.B. Clarke Theatre. Matti Terho, one of the University years. The Spirit of Christmas Drive time, students talk to a Ministry Claudius, of course, is the uncle and stepfather of Shakespeare's chaplains involved in the relief effort. goes back to the earliest days of Loy­ chaplain, who can promote other Hamlet, and central character of a murky comedy full of twists "Later, when you remember the help ola College and Sir George Williams services available to students, such as and turns. The play was first produced at the Factory Theatre in you received, you'll help, too." University, before they merged to second-hand clothing stores and Toronto-in 1993. For performance times, see the Back Page For Terho, it's all about building form Concordia University. open kitchens in various communi- listings. community and a safety net for peo- In the 1980s, it was realized that See Food,p: 11 IN THIS ISSUE Student debt could be UFEdelight eased by new legislation Field work $43.8 million in 1995-96. BY MICHAEL DOBIE Bill Reimer is an expert on the The federal government has just rural economy; and a student "'{ Jigilance and flexibility concern­ revealed that the problem of rising debt and bankruptcies isn't limited to enjoyed summer on a Roman dig. V ing student debt are the keywords of a report recently sub­ Qyebec. Average student debt Page2 mitted to Minister of Education nationwide will rise to $25,000 by Pauline Marois by a team that next year. Last year, almost 12,000 included Roger Cote, Acting Dean students defaulted on their loans, four times the number seven years Space vision of Students and Director of Finan­ cial Aid Services at Concordia. ago. In the 1990s, student debt levels Senate is presented with a long­ "We didn't have a mandate to have almost tripled. f change the student aid program, but In an attempt to halt these rising ~ term view of where disciplines u. rather to examine measures to facili­ expenditures, Marois quickly tabled ~ could find their home. tate [the reduction] of student debt some of the report's proposals in the ~ Page4 loads," Cote explained. The goal is National Assembly. If passed, they ~ also to reduce the amount given out will introduce flexibility into the § in loans and to reduce bankruptcies. repayment of student debt and make ~ a. The committee of experts, headed educating students about the ramifi- 9 Sick buildings by Claude Montmarquette, an eco­ cations of debt after graduation a ~ nomics professor at the Universite de central part of the application sil: A pledge to the Capital Montreal, revealed that from 1991 to process. Campaign will give researchers 1996, bankruptcies more than dou­ Also proposed were changes in the Congratulations to these four recent Concordia graduates of the calculation of parental support and an edge on indoor air quality. bled to 2,669 ex-students per year Graduate Diploma in Accountancy, who placed among the top 10 in owing a total of $29 million, up from the estimation of student income Quebec writing the gruelling Uniform Final Exam set by the Canadian Page 7 $6 million in 1991. that would make wealthy students Institute of Chartered Accountants. Last year, 37 per cent of <21_iebec's less eligible for aid. They are, left to right, Sonalee Parekh, of Price Waterhouse, who 360,000 post-secondary students The most significant change is to placed eighth; Jonathan Roiter, of Samson Belair Deloitte & Touche, Next issue: took loans, the average loan being the deferred repayment program, and Lawrence Wilk, of Richter Usher & Vineberg, who tied for fifth January 15 $3,200. Next year, the government which is being extended from two place; and Julie Moyen, also working at Samson Belair, who came expects to pay out a total of just over years after finishing full-time studies seventh. In fact, Concordia's pass rate for its 98 first-time writers was 70.4, once HAPPY $500 million in student aid, com­ to five, during which former students again considerably higher than the Quebec average of 53 per cent and prising bursaries, interest charges can take advantage of four six-month the national average of 64.5 per cent. HOLIDAYS! periods to defer their loan payments, and payments to banks for defaults Congratulations to the director of the program, Professor Gail interest-free. Currently, ex-students and bankruptcies. Defaulted loans Fayerman, her team, and the Faculty of Commerce and Administration. from 4,500 ex-students cost <21_iebec See Debt, p. 11 Sociologist Bill Reimer heads a national research project on the rural economy Life in the country is complex Engineering Games held here and changing fast Concordia will play host to the 1998 Quebec Engineering Games from BY PHIL MOSCOVITCH January 7 to 11. Four hundred engineering students f farming and forestry are all that representing 10 schools will compete in Icome to mind when you hear the word rural, then it's time to think a variety of events ove r the five-day again. period. The competition features skill­ From resource-based enterprises, testing challenges in building, civil, to manufacturing, to a wide array of computer, electrical , industrial and service industries - and yes, to mechanical engineering, as well as a farming, too - rural communities I< debating competition and sporting present a complex picture. iii events. But while there is no dearth of ~ <( The Engineering Games started in studies on Canadian rural communi- ~ 1i' 1990 at Universite Laval and have been ties, nobody has ever done an ~ held annually since then. Major corpo­ in-depth, comparative study. And ~ rate sponsorship for the Competition that's where Sociology and Anthro- ~ C. pology Professor Bill Reimer and the y comes from SPAR Aerospace , with New Rural Economy (NRE) ~ additional funding from Atomic Energy Research Project come in. 5s: of Canada Ltd ., Bombardier, DuPont, Launched in May of this year, the Nortel and Concordia's Faculty of Engi­ project is a five-year, $1.4-million neering and Computer Science. VIA initiative of the 10-year-old Canadi­ Rail, Labatt Breweries of Canada and an Rural Restructuring Foundation First Base give support in the form of (CRRF). It involves researchers from the amalgamations of country hospi­ In particular, he will focus on try­ moved to Qyebec in 1972 and began product donations. 15 universities and study areas in all tals and the exodus of young people ing to understand the ways in which studying agricultural communities. 10 provinces and both territories, as to cities, rural Canada is in the midst aboriginals are dealing with rural H e has been a rural sociologist ever well as policy makers, businesspeo­ of major change. social and economic change by look­ smce. ple, community activists and rural "As the labour in primary indus­ ing at the degree to which primarily Reimer has received close to Polytechnique citizens. tries declines rapidly, it has affected aboriginal rural economies, both on $40,000 in funding so far for his part commemorated Ambitious I and II the ability of rural communities to reserves and off, are integrated into of the NRE research. Funding, Reimer, who has been president of survive," Reimer said. "There's also a the economies surrounding them. which comes through the CRRF, A screening of the National Film tremendous variation in rural Cana­ One of the keys to the NRE pro­ the CRRF for the past three years, has been provided by a number of Board's Packing Heat, followed by a da: the impact i,n areas north of ject as a whole is to determine which said he was "excited" by the project.